Stephen Goldstein: Bush Library a lesson in hypocrisy

May 12, 2013|Stephen Goldstein, Columnist

Everything that looked right about the recent dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum is what's wrong with America.

First, hypocrisy was in overdrive: Against the backdrop of an architecturally pre-pubescent building, on a stage that rivaled "Mission Accomplished" for irony, Presidents Carter, Bush 41, Clinton and Obama allowed themselves to be used as props to create the illusion that the Bush 43 presidency was not a disaster, and he is a likely candidate to add to Mount Rushmore, as Karl Rove has suggested.

Whoever masterminded the spectacle really knew how to lead ex-presidents by the nose. I suspect they started by inviting Bill Clinton — because he never says no to a chance to spread his ego before a crowd, plus he grew close to Bush 41, raising money to help Haiti.

I'm guessing that Jimmy Carter was the last to come around, after they told him everyone else was going to be there; he looked positively in pain — but he still showed up. All but Bush 41 should have found an excuse for not attending the dedication rather than participating in a charade. Instead, they avoided the policy minefields of 43's administration — Iraq, Afghanistan, the Great Recession, Hurricane Katrina — and participated in a calculated cover-up of the truth.

Second, injustice was on display: The audience was peppered with scoundrels from the Bush White House who didn't know right from wrong — or, if they did, chose wrong — and got away with it.

There was Dick Cheney in a white cowboy hat, when he should be in white and black stripes, doing hard time in federal prison — along with Karl Rove, who should be his cell mate. After exposing the identity of a CIA agent, among other misdeeds, Cheney and Rove get to go free and enjoy a Dallas afternoon; a kid who steals a loaf of bread from a 7-Eleven gets the book thrown at him. Their immunities are an affront to American morality and proof of our double standard of justice.

Third, propaganda trumped the truth — or any attempt to establish it. Taxpayer dollars will be used in perpetuity to support George W. Bush's personal massaging of the history of his presidency.

Speaking at the dedication, Bill Clinton joked about "the eternal struggle of former presidents to rewrite history." No truer, or sadder, words could have been spoken — and generations of Americans who didn't live through the Bush 43 years will be the losers until and unless credible history seeps into the Library.

According to James Hohmann of "Politico," who has toured the exhibits, W wants to be known as a wartime president. (Right up there, I guess, with Abraham Lincoln.) The Svengalis of his administration — Rove, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney, are "essentially invisible" in exhibits. "Social issues, from his steadfast opposition to abortion to his push for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage are ignored, too."

"Crisis Management," another section, "addresses Hurricane Katrina and the financial crisis together," with the words "President Bush met each crisis by working to restore order and providing practical plans for recovery."

Really, so the issue after Hurricane Katrina was about restoring order?

You're paying for this, even if you never visit the library — and W, now an artist, is rigging his own "picture" of his years in the White House.

And he'll get away with it, because Americans have the historical perspective of fruit flies.

For no reason, W's approval rating is 47 percent, up from 33 percent when he left office. Americans are truth-challenged: We "detest all lies except lies spoken in public or printed lies," in the words of Edgar Watson Howe.

We need Truth Commissions — about the decisions leading up to our invading Iraq and who was responsible for what in the Bush 43 Administration; about the causes of the Great Recession and who, if anyone, should be prosecuted; about racism in America. It is an axiom of any kind of treatment that you have to identify and acknowledge a problem and its causes before you can hope to cure it.

By that standard, until Americans are willing and able to distinguish right from wrong, we'll keep getting truthless presidents — and their libraries.